Dutch police on Wednesday said they were investigating an assault after an anti-immigrant group said its members had detained an asylum seeker.

Members of a new Dutch branch of the group 'Soldiers of Odin', set up in Finland in 2015, said in a post on Facebook they had detained an asylum seeker whom they accused of assaulting women in the northern Dutch town of Winschoten. The group had appealed to members to hunt for the man.

The group denied using violence against the man, saying he was approached in the street and waited voluntarily for police to arrive.